{"id":14348,"date":"2026-09-16T20:25:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T19:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14348"},"modified":"2026-09-18T13:45:51","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:45:51","slug":"tractor-boys-beaten-by-school-boys-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=14348","title":{"rendered":"Tractor Boys Beaten by School Boys!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Max Dowman celebrates scoring his second goal in Arsenal’s win over Ipswich Town. Image by ESPN<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

First, an apology for the tardiness of this report. I volunteered to fill this gap in the schedule and due to some work confusion completely forgot about it. However \u2026 enjoy \u2026 I hope!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Tuesday evening trip to Suffolk for the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup saw Mikel Arteta ring the changes from the team that had won away at Sunderland just 72 hours before. Nine of them altogether with sone positional novelties among them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Gunners lined up as:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kepa; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubimendi, Salmon, Gabriel, Lewis-Skelly; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Guimar\u00e3es; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Merino, Dowman; <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Madueke, Gy\u00f6keres, Eze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was the best I could make of the formation, and it included 16 year old Max Dowman, 17 year old Marli Salmon and, lest we forget, the still only 19 year old Miles Lewis-Skelly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our replacements included a Brazilian international and two Spanish World Cup winners, such is the strength of the current squad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While 15 year old \u201cphenomenon\u201d JJ Gabriel is apparently demanding to leave Manchester United due to limited opportunities, Max Dowman, 16, has waited quietly for his first minutes of the new season and what minutes they were. As the nights slowly but surely draw in towards autumn, the lights were on at Portman Road for the eight-o-clock kick off and were augmented by a dazzling display by the just-out-of-school boy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The game was only 7 minutes old when he exchanged passes with Eberechi Eze and ran straight at the heart of the Ipswich defence. That run included what I will call the \u201cKanu feint\u201d – the one that left a number of Deportivo defenders on their backsides in a Champions League tie at Highbury as he walked the ball into the net. Max\u2019s feint left 29 year old, 6\u20193\u201d Ipswich defender, Cedric Kipre, on the floor – similarly to the the Everton defender he sent sprawling at the Emirates – before he nudged the ball onto his \u2018weaker\u2019 right foot and fired in at the left hand post past a helpless Christian Walton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not a bad night\u2019s work for a 16 year old. But it was only half done. Two minutes into the second half, Martin Zubimendi pushed the ball into the Ipswich area where Dowman, back on his left foot, calmly curled the ball past the keeper and inside the far post to complete his first senior brace and put the Arsenal 3 – 0 to the good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In between those Dowman strikes, Noni Madueke had doubled Arsenal\u2019s lead after a Bruno Guimar\u00e3es tackle freed the ball which found itself with Mikel Merino. His chipped pass found Madueke on the right hand side of the area and the winger adjusted his body position before driving the ball past Walton with the outside of his left boot. So 2 – 0 after 16 minutes. The handbrake was well and truly off and Set Piece FC were in full flow. I have to admit at this point, utterly spoilt as I am, that I was disappointed with our corners. Is anyone else feeling slightly disappointed that we haven\u2019t scored from a single corner in our first six games!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After Dowman\u2019s second goal, Arsenal continued to probe until Merino picked up a pass from Guimar\u00e3es and struck from just outside the area. It was a lovely strike with his left foot which cannoned in off the left hand post to make it Ipswich 0 – 4 Arsenal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anis Mehmeti pulled one back for Ipswich from a driving assist from substitute Clark. Ex-Arsenal Hale End graduate Chuba Akpom – can you believe he is 30 years old? – grabbed them a second consolation in added time with a neat turn and shot from 12 yards. He had fouled MLS in the build up which I\u2019m sure VAR would have spotted had it been employed. Oh yes it would!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mikel Arteta had been able to leave Bukayo Saka on the bench and Declan Rice at home, such is the strength of the squad. None of our full backs was risked either with a tricky game scheduled for Brighton at the weekend. Marli Salmon gave an impressive display at centre back and 18 year old Theo Julienne came on as a late sub at right back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The night, though, belonged to Max Dowman, of whom Mikel Arteta purred, \u201cHe\u2019s an unbelievable player because of the character that he has and how much he loves to play at the biggest stage and still handle the situation so naturally. That\u2019s his biggest quality. At 16 to already do what he does, it\u2019s just incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And isn\u2019t it great, as fans, to see that despite the depth and quality in our squad, there is still a pathway into the side for the incredible youngsters the club is producing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, a word for the loud and proud travelling Gooners. I\u2019m sure there will be an on the spot report to look forward to from C100 if he hasn\u2019t already beaten me to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

First, an apology for the tardiness of this report. I volunteered to fill this gap in the schedule and due to some work confusion completely forgot about it. However \u2026 enjoy \u2026 I hope! A Tuesday evening trip to Suffolk for the 3rd round of the Carabao Cup saw Mikel Arteta ring the changes from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14348"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14348"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14348\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14384,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14348\/revisions\/14384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}